


in the dark, we laugh together

by reversustenebris



Series: MCYT Oneshots [4]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Just some Strawberry TEN and Sleepy Bois Inc., Just some good fall activities, Pronoun switching for Eret :D, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, we love to see it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27115049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reversustenebris/pseuds/reversustenebris
Summary: “Dude, it’s so cold.” Tubbo says, wrapping his arms around himself as he waits in line with his siblings to get entry tickets for the pumpkin patch.“It’s October, Tubbo.” Niki says, though she wraps an arm around his shoulder in an attempt to help anyways.Eret looks him over. “I thought I told you to bring a jacket?”Tubbo hums and looks down at his bare arms as if suddenly realizing he didn’t have one. “You did.”“And yet you didn’t bring one.”
Series: MCYT Oneshots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920349
Comments: 14
Kudos: 323





	in the dark, we laugh together

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from "Baby You're a Haunted House" by Gerard Way !!

“Can we stop for coffee on the way there?”

Eret pauses with their hand on the car door handle. “Tubbo, you know that coffee will just make you feel weird.”

“Consider the fact that it tastes good, though.”

“Agreed.” Niki says, settling in the passenger seat.

“Why do you two always team up on me?” Eret says with an over-dramatic sigh as he buckles up. “...Is Starbucks okay?”

“Yes!” Tubbo cheers from the back seat. “I love you, Eret!”

“Love you too, Tubbo.” Eret responds. “But if you feel weird after having your coffee, please don’t complain to me about it.”

“Reasonable.”

\------

“Tubbo,” Niki starts, turning around, “you okay?”

Tubbo yawns. “Yeah? Why do you ask?”

“You keep yawning, buddy.” Eret chimes in. “You gotta be up, we’re almost there.”

“It’s early?”

“You just drank a grande cold brew.” Niki says, picking up the empty cup and shaking it a little.

“Indeed I did.” Tubbo says, grabbing the cup back to look at it and attempt to get any more coffee out.

“And you’re still tired.”

“Indeed I am.”

“...Do you need more coffee?” Eret tries.

Tubbo yawns once more. “That’d be nice.”

“We can get you some when you get there.” Niki says, turning back around to face the road. The golden trees that line the sides of the back road are slowly turning into farmland, stalks of corn replacing the fall leaves.

“Yay.” Tubbo says with no energy behind it, leaning back in his seat and shutting his eyes.

“Is a caffeine problem genetic?” Eret stage whispers.

“We don’t share the same genes!” Niki responds in kind.

“Shit, right. Maybe we’re just bad influences.”

“Maybe.”

\------

“Dude, it’s so cold.” Tubbo says, wrapping his arms around himself as he waits in line with his siblings to get entry tickets for the pumpkin patch.

“It’s October, Tubbo.” Niki says, though she wraps an arm around his shoulder in an attempt to help anyways.

Eret looks him over. “I thought I told you to bring a jacket?” 

Tubbo hums and looks down at his bare arms as if suddenly realizing he didn’t have one. “You did.”

“And yet you didn’t bring one.”

“It seems I didn’t.” Tubbo shivers. “Ugh, why is it so windy? I hate it here.”

Eret shrugs off her jacket and drops it on Tubbo’s head, who jumps and struggles to pull it off. “Here.”

“Eret!” Tubbo yelps, finally yanking the jacket off of his head and shaking it off before pulling it on. “...Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Eret says with a small laugh. “That jacket is huge on you.”

“Quit flexing your height.” Niki says, giving Eret a small shove on the shoulder. 

“Yeah, Eret, it’s not fair that your gene donors were taller than ours.”

Eret snorts. “Why do you call them my ‘gene donors’?”

“‘Cuz it’s funny.” Tubbo says with a shrug.

“Can’t argue with that.” Eret replies before stepping up to the ticket counter.

\-----

The moment the three step through the gates, Tubbo is off like a flash, hurrying over to the sprawling field of pumpkins near the entrance. He picks up a particularly small one and holds it up like a trophy.

“Look how cute this one is!” 

Eret and Niki catch up to him and look it over.

“It is pretty cute.” Niki says, gently taking it from Tubbo’s hands.

“It’s so little. How do they get them that little and cute?” Eret asks when Niki hands it to him. He stares at the side of it. “We should draw a little face on it.”

“Yesssss,” Tubbo replies, before picking up another, even tinier pumpkin. “We should just get all the little ones and keep them in our pockets.”

“Why?” Niki says. “I mean, I’m not opposed, but why?”

“We could, like… throw them at people.” 

Eret laughs. “Why would we need to throw them at people?” She takes the pumpkin from her brother’s hands. “I feel like you shouldn’t be allowed to hold these anymore.”

“What if it’s, like, an emergency, E?” Tubbo says, snatching the pumpkin back. 

“An emergency that can only be solved by throwing pumpkins at people?” Niki replies.

“Yeah.” Tubbo says with mock-seriousness. 

“Fair enough.” Eret responds, leaning over to gather as many tiny pumpkins as they can hold. “Pocket pumpkins it is.”

Niki picks up a fairly large one and cradles it in her arms. “We need some big ones too, so we can carve them.”

“Oh, you’re right. Do we want to come back and get the big ones later? So we don’t have to carry them?”

“Sure!” Niki says, placing it down as the three of them start walking further into the pumpkin patch.

“You are so wise, Eret,” Tubbo says, before a few pumpkins fall out of his coat pocket. He nearly trips trying to pick them up, and Eret catches his shoulders before he falls. “So wise.”

“Thanks, Tubbs.” Eret replies with a snort.

\------

“Are you two sure this is a good idea?” Niki asks, staring at the towering corn maze in front of them.

“Of course!” Tubbo chirps.

“What could go wrong?” Eret adds.

Niki gives them a look. “You know so many things could go wrong. The corn is taller than you, even. You could get lost just the same as we could.”

“Pfft,” Tubbo says with a dismissive wave of his hand, “We won’t get lost. Right, Eret?”

“We won’t get lost.” Eret confirms, though she looks a little unsure.

“Well, if you’re that confident…” Niki starts, stepping through the entrance of the maze and onto the worn dirt. “Let’s go!”

\-----

“I am so lost.” Tubbo mumbles to himself, running his fingers along the stalks of corn as he walks mindlessly through the maze. “We should have picked a place to meet.”

The maze was a lot more complicated than any of them thought. Eret got distracted talking to Niki about his pumpkin pie recipes and Tubbo just ended up wandering down a different path.

He hops a little to try and see over the corn. He can’t see much, but he does spot a giant, old, gnarled tree in what’s probably the center of the maze, and he figures it’s best to find his way there and wait to see if his siblings can find him.

After a while of careful walking, with a few hops here and there to see how close the tree is, he arrives at a small clearing. Little log benches are scattered around the grounds, with the large tree in the center. Fairy lights are strung through its branches, and little covered fire pits are settled between the groups of log benches. Tubbo thinks he’d find it a lot nicer if he wasn’t so upset about getting lost. He settles on one of the log benches, pulling out his phone. No signal. He sighs and puts his head in his hands.

“Yo!” A familiar voice calls from across the clearing. Tubbo peeks out through his fingers to see Tommy standing near one of the path exits.

Tubbo hops to his feet. “Tommy?” The two meet in the center of the clearing, giving eachother a little fistbump once they get close enough. “What are you doing here?”

“Phil wanted to come. He says that carving pumpkins would be a good bonding activity for us.” Tommy says, doing a very bad impression of his dad at the end of his sentence. “What are you doing here?”

“Eret and Niki and I came to get some little pumpkins for the house. And I wanted cider. Or coffee, maybe.” Tubbo looks over Tommy’s shoulder. “You said Phil wanted to come? Where is he, then?”

Tommy flushes red. “He- went looking somewhere else.”

“You’re lost, aren’t you?” Tubbo snorts.

“No!” Tommy says indignantly, “I am not lost! I made a choice to be here alone.”

“You’re totally lost.” Tubbo replies. He looks around. “It’s okay, so am I.”

Tommy looks a little more relieved. “Want to look for our families together?”

“Sure.” Tubbo says, picking a random path back into the maze and looking over his shoulder. “Let’s go!”

After a few minutes of walking, Tommy stops. “Do we have a plan?”

“A plan for what?” Tubbo says, tugging on Tommy’s sleeve to get him to keep walking.

“To get out.”

“I figure if we just keep walking we’ll get out eventually, right?”

Tommy doesn’t seem very convinced. “What if we just get stuck in a loop and walk the same path forever?”

“Forever is a bit much, yeah?” Tubbo says, but he stops at the next intersection he comes to anyways. “We can make little X’s in the dirt so we know which way we came from.” He demonstrates by toeing a mark on the ground at the edge of the path they just came from. “Good?”

“Good.” Tommy says, continuing to walk. “Y’know, Tubbo, It’s actually almost nice wal-” Someone jumping out from the corn in front of them cuts Tommy off. 

“Boo!” The figure yells, and Tommy shrieks, ducking behind Tubbo, who jolts a little before catching himself and laughing.

“Hey, Wilbur!” Tubbo says, calming down, watching as his friend doubles over laughing in front of them.

“H- hey, Tubbo!” Wilbur manages between laughs before standing up and wiping at the tears budding at the corners of his eyes. “God, Tommy, I can’t believe that worked!”

“Wilbur! You son of a bitch!” Tommy roars before unceremoniously tackling his brother to the dirt.

“We really can’t have nice things, huh.” A deep voice says from Tubbo’s right.

Tubbo looks over to see Techno, who’s watching his brothers fight, looking completely uninterested. Phil walks up to Tubbo’s left.

“No, we can’t.” The older man says before walking over and yanking Tommy up by the shirt collar before he can smack his brother in the face. “Cut that shit out.”

“Aw, Phil!” Tommy says, pulling away. “He deserved it!”

“Maybe.” Phil says, helping Wilbur to his feet. “But get revenge in a way that doesn’t end up with dirt all over my car interior.”

The five of them begin walking, Tommy sidling up beside Tubbo with a sigh. “I can never have any fun.” He mumbles.

“Nope.” Tubbo agrees.

Wilbur turns to face them. “How’d you get here, Tubbo?”

“I came with Eret and Niki.” Tubbo looks around. “Don’t know where they went.”

“Hm,” Phil says. “Well, we can leave the maze and look for ‘em? Knowing those two, they’re probably really worried about you.”

Tubbo frowns. “Yeah. I didn’t mean to get lost.”

“I’m sure you didn’t, it’s alright.” Phil says, leading them around a corner. The exit lies in front of them, and Tommy whoops before pushing ahead of the group and out into the open.

“We’re free!” He cheers.

“Why are you so embarrassing in public?” Techno asks, walking to meet up with him.

The moment Tubbo steps out of the maze, he hears yelling. 

“Tubbo!” His siblings cry out at the same time before he’s suddenly smothered in a hug.

“Where’d you go?” Niki asks, pulling away.

Eret pulls away too. “We were worried about you!”

“Told ya!” Phil calls from where he’s standing with his kids.

“I’m sorry,” Tubbo says, “I just took a wrong turn and got lost.”

Eret looks him over and brushes some dust off of his jacket before deciding that their brother is in satisfactory condition. “It’s alright. Looks like you found some friends, anyways. Hey guys!”

“Hey!” Wilbur replies as they all group together. “We didn’t know you all would be here.”

“Likewise,” Niki says with a smile. “Glad to see you!”

‘What do we want to do now? If you guys don’t have anywhere to be, that is.” Phil asks, looking around the patch.

“Petting zoo?” Niki suggests.

“Petting zoo!” Tubbo affirms.

The group starts making their way to the little, rickety, red barn at the corner of the patch. 

“Absolutely nothing could go wrong here.” Techno says to Wilbur, who snorts.

“Tommy is either gonna get bit or spit on.” Wilbur stage whispers in return.

“Totally.”

\-----

“Oh, Wilbur, you’re like a prophet!” Techno says over the sound of Tommy yelling.

Wilbur wheezes. “I am!”

“Quit laughing at your brother!” Phil says, before losing his composure and snorting.

Tommy fruitlessly wipes at the spit on his shoulder, groaning as it just spreads and gets all over his hand. He glares at the smug-looking llama in front of him. “You motherfucker!” He hisses. From next to him, Tubbo starts to lean over the fence, and Tommy grabs him with his clean hand. “Oh, Tubbo, don’t-”

Tubbo shrugs him off and gently pets the llama, which seems to suddenly have no issues with their little group. “Seems fine to me!” He says with a giggle.

“Get his ass.” Eret says from Tubbo’s side, resting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from tipping over the fence.

“Fuck off.” Tommy groans, stepping back to shake off his hand.

“Be nice!” Niki says, coming back to the group after she left to find some paper towels. She hands the bundle to Tommy, who takes it and cleans himself up best he can.

“This shirt is ruined now.” He says, tugging at the damp shoulder.

“You have, like, twenty identical shirts just like that one.” Wilbur says. “You’ll live.”

“But I liked this one!” 

“What makes it different?” Techno asks, looking him over.

“Yeah, I bought all of them at the same place.” Phil adds.

“This one has memories!”

“How do you know which one it is?” Wilbur says. “Do you have them numbered?”

“Wh- No.” Tommy says quickly, hastily shrugging his coat back on.

“He totally does,” Tubbo says, hopping back off the fence and waving bye to the llama. “It’s on the tags on the back.”

“Hey!” Tommy shrieks, trying to hustle out of the barn when Techno grabs his shoulder and holds him still so he can check the tag.

“Hah, he does.” Techno confirms before letting him go.

“I hate this fucking family,” Tommy grumbles, making his way out of the barn as the rest of them follow.

“Unfortunate. Imagine not liking your family.” Eret says, giving high fives to Niki and Tubbo to rub it in.

“I hate you too, Eret.”

“Noted.”

\------

All seven of them hastily cover the lids of their cider cups as the hayride cart jolts below them. They shake the drops of cider off their hands and continue chatting as the cart lazily drags around the wooded areas of the pumpkin patch.

“Feel better now that you have cider?” Wilbur asks, gently nudging Tommy’s arm.

Tommy takes an unnecessarily loud sip. “Yeah.” He looks across the cart to where Tubbo is sitting squished between his siblings. “How’s your cider?”

Tubbo knocks back the rest of the drink in his cup. “Cider? No, this was coffee.” He looks up at Eret. “Can I have some of your cider?”

“You said you didn’t want any. I bought you coffee!” Eret replies, motioning to the empty styrofoam cup clutched in Tubbo’s hands.

“Well, I didn’t want any then, but I want some now.” Tubbo says as if it's obvious.

Eret groans but hands her cup over to Tubbo anyways. “Fine. Just a sip, though.”

Tubbo takes the cup. “Thank you.” He says, before taking an impossibly large drink, emptying almost half the cup.

“Hey!” Eret half-shouts, lightly smacking Tubbo on the back of the head before grabbing his cup back. “That’s not a sip!”

“What is the definition of a sip, though?” Tubbo says, rubbing the back of his head.

“Not whatever that was.” Niki answers, grabbing Eret’s hand to steady his cup and pouring some of her cider into it so they can share. “Be good to Eret! They drove us here!”

“Yeah, be nice to your brother.” Tommy snarks from the other side.

“You literally tackled Wilbur and tried to smack him like thirty minutes ago.” Techno says.

“Yeah, but he deserved it.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Techno hums. He looks around the back of the rickety wagon from his spot on the hay pile. “I thought this was supposed to be a haunted hayride? Because right now it’s just woods and leaves and dirt and more woods.”

“Maybe the spooky part is that we paid for a scare we’re never going to get. It’s the anticipation.” Wilbur says.

“Wow.” Is all Phil says.

The wagon passes under a particularly low section of forest, the thick layers of branches above darkening the path below. An animatronic monster swings down from a cluster of branches above the wagon and screams through a tinny voice box.

“Fuck!” Eret and Techno say at the same time, jumping slightly. The rest of the wagon laughs. Eret hands his cup to Niki.

“I don’t want to spill it,” they whisper, “I know I’m gonna get got by all these jumpscares.”

“It’s ok, Eret, Niki and I can protect you.” Tubbo says, leaning closer to his brother.

Eret laughs. “Thanks, Tubbs.”

Tubbo nods solemnly. “Someone here has to be the brave one.”

“Of course, of course.” Eret says with the same mock-seriousness.

The rest of the ride goes as expected, cheap scares and old, rickety, robots making up most of the horror. By the end, though, they’re all laughing so hard they can barely climb out of the wagon.

“Even Tommy screamed less than you, Techno!” Phil teases as he helps him out of the wagon.

“Tommy is too busy sulking over his millionth red and white shirt.” Wilbur says in Techno’s defense.

“Oh, you got him there,” Phil says with a snort. His kids begin their fourth shouting match of the day. He turns to Eret. “Meet at our place?”

“See you there!” Eret replies, and he and his siblings give their goodbyes as the groups split to their respective cars.

\------

Phil’s kitchen is very cozy. There’s not a lot of room for all of them to be in there baking pies, but they try their best, and Techno, Tommy, and Wilbur offer to go out on the back porch to carve their pumpkins instead. They leave the door from the kitchen to the outside open so they can all chat, and the heat from the ovens keeps it from getting too cool.

“How many pies should we make?” Eret asks, laying out cans of pie filling next to where Niki is working out pie dough on the nearest open counter space she can find.

Wilbur pauses from where he’s sat on the ground and counts each person in the room. “Eight?”

“Too many,” Phil says. 

“Four?” Tubbo offers.

“Four still seems like a lot,” Phil says as he works open one of their many cans of condensed milk.

“We can always share them with neighbors? Or some other friends?” Niki suggests.

“Boring.” Tommy says as he stabs a plastic knife into his pumpkin.

“Tommy, you unfortunately no longer get any pie.” Eret replies with a snort.

“You can’t stop me!”

“Hey, Niki, do you mind stopping with the dough for now? We can finish it up at home.”

“No problem, Eret!” Niki says with a knowing smile, leaving the dough half-draped over the pie tin.

“Oh, darn,” Tubbo says, hopping off of his seat on one of the kitchen counters. “Guess we’re going home.” He smiles at his siblings before giving a ‘what can you do?’ shrug to Tommy.

“Oh come on!” Tommy says.

“Tommy…” Wilbur leads, giving his brother a look.

Tommy groans. “I guess sharing is cool, too, Niki.”

“Awesome! Glad we’re all on the same page.” Eret says as she finishes mixing her bowl of filling. “Ready to lay out the crust?”

“Wait, can I pour it?” Tubbo says, coming over and making grabby hands at the metal bowl in Eret’s arms. 

“Sure!” Niki says as Eret hands over the bowl, and Tubbo gingerly takes it before pouring in the filling. “Nice.” She affirms.

“Will you teach me how to bake?” Tubbo asks once he’s satisfied with his pour. He takes his seat back on the counter to watch his siblings.

“Yeah, what do you want to make first?”

“Bread?”

“Solid choice.” Eret says. He picks up the first pie and Phil opens the oven door for him to put it in. “One down!”

They finish preparing the next three pies and leave them to rest on the counter while they wait for the first one to finish baking. The four of them head outside to the porch to observe.

“Whatcha’ making, Wilbur?” Phil asks.

“Just a traditional little spooky face.” Wilbur says, leaning over to carefully pop out the mouth on the pumpkin. “I wanted it so we can take cliche family pictures on the porch.”

“You want to take pictures?”

“Not really, but Techno hates them, so now I’d really love to take family pictures. Think of the Christmas cards, Phil!”

“...Alright.” 

Tubbo takes a seat next to Tommy, who turns his pumpkin a little so Tubbo can see it better. “What’s that?”

“A knife.” Tommy says, sticking out his tongue a little as he concentrates on making straight lines with his plastic carver. It doesn’t really work.

“Cool.” Tubbo nods.

“And what do you have, Techno?” Niki asks.

Techno holds up a pumpkin that has a large hole cut out of the front, leaving it like an empty diorama. “I’m going to carve a potato the way one would carve a pumpkin and put it inside of this bigger pumpkin.”

“...Why?” Eret says. “Why not carve a potato into the pumpkin?”

Techno tsk’s. “You think I have the art skills for that?”

“Well, fair, but do you think you have the skills to carve something as small as a potato?”

“Damn, I didn’t think of that.” Techno says, staring down at the pumpkin in his hands.

Niki takes a seat on his right as Eret sits on his left. “We can help you!” Niki says as she picks up the potato Techno had nestled into the pile of pumpkins in the center of their little circle.

“Niki can help you,” Eret corrects, “I can cheer you on. I can’t do art for shit.”

“Fair.” Techno says, taking a carving tool from Eret and passing it to Niki.

The potato takes a while to carve, and while they finish it up, the rest of the pies go in and out of the oven, and the other pumpkins are carved. The pictures of all of them standing on the porch holding their respective pumpkins are completely ridiculous, but they wouldn’t have them any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> had a bad week so i needed some fluff
> 
> thank u very much for reading :D


End file.
